Sunday, September 30, 2007

This is rather trivial but if it conveys a message of disapproval to tyrants, I am all for it:

"Declaring a war of words on Burma's military rulers, the White House said it would keep calling that country Burma, rather than Myanmar, in a show of support for pro-democracy activists there.

Spokesman Tony Fratto said Washington's refusal to use the junta's term for their country was "intentional" because "we choose not to use the language of a totalitarian dictatorial regime that oppresses its people".

"And we have freedom of speech here, maybe they don't," Mr Fratto said amid mounting global pressure for the regime to end a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

His comments were in line with the US State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, which pointedly note that the 1989 name change never won approval from the country's legislators.

"A longtime critic of Rutgers University's drive into big-time sports is being criticized over a newspaper article comment that university officials have branded as racist.

At the end of a Wednesday New York Times article about William C. Dowling's failed efforts to get Rutgers to turn away from high-stakes athletics, the tenured English professor responded to arguments that athletic scholarships provide opportunity to low-income, minority students.

"If you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid who happens to play a sport, that's fine," Dowling said. "But they give it to a functional illiterate who can't read a cereal box, and then make him spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That's not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school."

Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy told local newspapers that Dowling's comment was "a blatantly racist statement." In a statement released by the university, Rutgers President Richard McCormick called it "inaccurate and inhumane." "It also has a racist implication that has no place whatsoever in our civil discourse," McCormick said in the statement.

All blacks are criminal, according to pretty-boy John Edwards. He was asked what he would do about crime if he became President. He said:

"We start with the president of the United States saying to America, "We cannot build enough prisons to solve this problem." And the idea that we're just going to keep incarcerating, keep incarcerating--pretty soon, we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They're all going to be in prison--or dead, one of the two.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

ACLU Cheers Hate Crimes Legislation

We read:

"The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the passage of the Matthew Shepard Amendment to the Defense Department authorization bill that for the first time punishes hate crimes without infringing on free speech. The amendment, offered by Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR), will broaden the definition of hate crimes and give more resources to local districts unable to investigate them single-handedly.....

In the past, the ACLU has not endorsed hate crimes legislation because the organization found that earlier versions of the legislation would have had a chilling effect on free speech. Instead, this amendment only allows speech to be considered evidence of a hate crime if it directly relates to the specific act. As a result, no one will be prosecuted based on a book that he or she read, a meeting or religious service that the defendant once attended or a group in which he or she is a member - unless those speech activities specifically related to a violent hate crime.

"The hate crimes legislation is more protective of free speech than any other criminal law in the entire U.S. code," said ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Chris Anders. "The amendment makes clear that violent hate crimes will be punished, but not mere thoughts, speech or belief. This legislation protects two fundamental American values because being able to live without the fear of being attacked just for being yourself is as American as the right to free speech."

Sounds great, eh? So nobody will be prosecuted MERELY for thoughts or words. That's true. What they omit to mention, however, that words uttered in the CHAIN OF EVENTS leading up to some act of violence are criminalized. So if your Rabbi remarks in your hearing that the Torah orders stoning for homosexuals (which it does) and you then go out and assault a homosexual, then your Rabbi has committed a crime.

Clearly, the ACLU does NOT believe in free speech. They are lying through their teeth.

This could be seen as quite antisemitic and anti-Muslim legislation. Christians of course believe that homosexuals will be punished by God only (Romans chapter 1)

Although there is a resemblance, the "arms" do not meet up in the center so it is not an actual Swastika.

Fascism was quite fashionable in the 1920s and 1930s so lots of Art Deco buildings had actual swastikas moulded into their ceilings etc. A building I once owned even had a Roman fasces moulded into the ceiling of its foyer. I suppose all those symbols will now be targeted -- where they have not been already. How much better it would be to target the real racial discrimination of today: "Affirmative action".

"After eating dinner at a famed Harlem restaurant recently, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly told a radio audience he "couldn't get over the fact" that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia's and other restaurants. It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun," he said. "And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all." O'Reilly said his fellow patrons were tremendously respectful as he ate dinner with civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

The comments were made during O'Reilly's nationally syndicated radio broadcast last week. The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America called attention to them by distributing a transcript and audio clip on the Internet. "This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings," said Bill Shine, senior vice president for programming at Fox News Channel. "It's sad," he added

O'Reilly spoke during a general discussion about racial relations with Fox News analyst Juan Williams. O'Reilly said he believed black Americans were "starting to think more and more for themselves" and backing away from a race-based culture encouraged by Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He said he treated Sharpton to dinner to thank him for appearing on his Fox News Channel show.

O'Reilly pointed to the lack of difference between Sylvia's and other restaurants as a marker of racial progress. He also noted that he went to an Anita Baker concert recently where the audience was evenly mixed between blacks and whites. "The band was excellent, but they were dressed in tuxedoes, and this is what white America doesn't know, particularly people who don't have a lot of interaction with black Americans," he said. "They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg."

Friday, September 28, 2007

Democrats Parodying Blacks

A postcard with the following message seems to have been mailed out widely in Pike County (Pennsylvania):

"The postcard features a photo of a black woman who resembles Aunt Jemima. The text reads, "Yessum, Mr. Harry (Forbes). I'm supposed ta votes for you and Mr. Rich (Caridi). Then Iz supposed to vote for Mr. Greg (Chelak) and Mr. Ray (Tonkin) too. I'll be good. I'm not like the rest. I don't want you or the Sheriff mad at me."

"Nike on Tuesday unveiled what it said is the first shoe designed specifically for American Indians, an effort aiming at promoting physical fitness in a population with high obesity rates.

The Beaverton-based company says the Air Native N7 is designed with a larger fit for the distinct foot shape of American Indians, and has a culturally specific look. It will be distributed solely to American Indians; tribal wellness programs and tribal schools nationwide will be able to purchase the shoe at wholesale price and then pass it along to individuals, often at no cost.....

Nike designers and researchers looked at the feet of more than 200 people from more than 70 tribes nationwide and found that in general, American Indians have a much wider and taller foot than the average shoe accommodates. The average shoe width of men and women measured was three width sizes larger than the standard Nike shoe.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

You have complete freedom of speech at George Mason university as long as you don't undermine anyone's "dignity". Extract from official GMU memo to students follows:

"Already this fall, a number of students, staff, and faculty have raised concerns and engaged in dialogues related to controversial campus, national, and international issues. As conversations ensue both in and outside of the classroom on issues such as Mason?s quiet meditation space, recent acts of racism at UMD-College Park, and the upcoming Jena 6 trials, we encourage dialogue that fosters critical thinking, positive engagement, and mutual respect.

Our challenge as a community as we engage in these dialogues is to stay committed to honoring and encouraging free speech, while at the same time attending to those who may feel that their safety and dignity have been compromised"

I've looked hard but my copy of the 1st Amendment does not make an exception for speech that affects dignity.

Sounds like you cannot criticize ANYONE (Christians, conservatives and "Zionists" excepted, of course) because all criticism surely reduces that person's "dignity". If I say that a Muslim's religion amounts to 8th century ignorance, that sure would not do much for his dignity but it might be true.

"Germany's mighty BMW corporation is at the centre of a race row over an unfortunate choice of words used by its chief designer to describe the company's products. "It's kind of an axis of white power here; there are really strong white cars," boasts Chris Bangle on the BMW website about cars exhibited at the Geneva Motor Show last year.....

A BMW spokesman said the company and Mr Bangle would take the criticism "very seriously." He said it was regretted that the comments of the designer were misinterpreted and said he mentioned white power because of a number of white cars at the show. "Chris Bangle has no sympathy with the far right or racist positions," said the spokesman.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Does Mountie's attitude help reinforce racist stereotypes of indigenous Canadians?

We read:

"Heard the joke about the drunk Indian? For far too long, First Nations have been saddled with this kind of unfair, racially intolerant stereotype. It hasn't been easy, but a nation committed to cultural diversity has been working to shed itself of that kind of unacceptable attitude.

So imagine the surprise of many people upon hearing the remarks of Chief RCMP Supt. Doug Reti, the head of the force's national aboriginal policing services.

With the government preparing to pay $2 billion to survivors of abuse at native residential schools, Reti is warning cities across Canada and the Mounties to brace themselves. He's conjuring up visions of increased family violence, binge drinking and excessive drug use.

So was the Mountie expert on Canadian Indians being racist? Read here what he actually said and make up your own mind. To a Leftist, of course, the slightest hint of differences between groups is forbidden. In their weird world there are no differences between blacks and Chinese, for instance.

"The nephew of a former Northwest Side congressman on Thursday emphatically denied making racist and sexist comments to co-workers at the city's Department of Transportation and said he was falsely accused -- and fired -- for cracking the whip against unproductive city inspectors. Joseph Annunzio, a nephew of the late Rep. Frank Annunzio (D-Ill.), said the woman who filed the bogus complaint is the girlfriend of Cook County Commissioner William Beavers, a former alderman.

Annunzio charged that Patty Young "never wrote any citations, hardly did any work and spent most of her time in the office just walking around." Annunzio said when he "called her on it numerous times," Beavers sent county board liaison Frank D'Amato to deliver a message to Annunzio's father, an aide to Ald. Tom Allen (38th): "Tell your son to leave Beavers' girlfriend Patty Young and her friends alone."

"I am a white supervisor in a position of authority who's holding people accountable to do their jobs and stories are being made up so they don't have to do their jobs," Annunzio said. "I made people work eight hours a day. They were held accountable for writing citations, inspecting road construction, working with utility companies on street openings and meeting with aldermen to resolve complaints. Everybody was charted on a graph. Most of those with allegations against me were either at the bottom of the chart or have been suspended by me." ...

Annunzio was placed on paid administrative leave from his $77,148-a-year job in April after being accused of calling female co-workers "bitches," using the n-word, "mambo" and "Magilla the Gorilla" to address African Americans and for referring to immigrants as "f---ing foreigners."

On Thursday, Annunzio flatly denied those charges. He acknowledged using vulgarity to get his points across to underlings. He admitted that his use of the word "foreigners" to describe immigrants may have been insensitive. But he said he never once made racist, sexist or other demeaning remarks to co-workers. Annunzio said he's willing to take a lie detector test to prove he never made racist or sexist comments.

Any white supervisor of blacks can easily be so accused by a few of the blacks getting together and making stuff up. So a wise white supervisor lets blacks do as they please. In a sane world, accusations of racism in such circumstances would be disregarded.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Intellectuals of Tomorrow

Colorado State University Student Newspaper Under Fire for Bush "Editorial":

"The Colorado State University student newspaper is under fire after publishing a two-word editorial statement about President Bush. The Rocky Mountain Collegian published the editorial on its Sept. 21 opinion page, saying "Taser this .. (expletive) BUSH."

University officials released a statement explaining their concern for response to the editorial, and that it has no control over its student media. "While we understand (the editorial) is upsetting and offensive to many people, CSU is prohibited by law from censoring or regulating the content of its student media publications," CSU said in a written statement.

The newspaper's editor-in-chief wrote a letter to readers to explain that "our intentions were not malicious." "While the editorial board feels strongly with regard to first amendment issues, we have found the unintended consequences of such a bold statement to be extremely disheartening," wrote J. David McSwane, editor-in-chief. The editorial board, which consists of seven student editors, voted in a split vote to run the editorial statement, McSwane said.

Private jokes sent via email often go to unintended recipients and land the sender in trouble but it is not only email that is now risky. One wonders if private jokes cannot now be safely made at all. Where are all the "privacy" advocates?

"A television station apologised to viewers after an internet video showed a longtime weather anchor clowning around in front of a computer graphic of a woman's breast. WBKO-TV, a station based in Bowling Green, Kentucky, said on its website that it has reprimanded weather anchor Chris Allen for "acting in a juvenile and unprofessional manner." Rick McCue, station vice president and general manager, said Allen remains an employee.

The tape was from years earlier, never aired on television and was stolen by a former employee, who posted it on the internet, according to the station, which did not name the former employee.

WBKO's statement included an apology from Allen: "This video - which was never intended to be seen outside of the station - was part of a joke that was played on me during a lighter moment off the air several years ago.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Letter not Illegal but Police Investigating Anyhow!

We read:

"Dear Sodomite," the letter began. It arrived in the mail on 9-11. It was mailed in Lansing on 9-10. The letter went on to tell me I had been found "GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY!!!" (capital letters in the original). After introducing me to scripture I have read and heard numerous times from right wing zealots and white supremacy leaders, the letter closes as follows:

"REPENT IN THE NAME OF JESUS FROM YOUR FILTHY LIFESTYLE OF SATAN, OR IN THE ETERNAL LAKE OF FIRE YOU WILL EXPERIENCE AGONIES THAT MAKE AUSCHWITZ SEEM LIKE PARADISE!" ....

And while nothing in the letter was illegal per se, we do after all live in a country where free speech is a sacred tradition, and religious speech even more so, the act itself is one of terrorism. I have contacted law enforcement and there is now an investigation.

There is a perfectly civil article here offering a scientific argument against the "gay gene" theory and complaining about the impossibility of saying what you think about homosexuality because of an oppressive university speech code.

We read here that the letter has been widely condemned as "hate speech" and we read here that someone who claims to believe in free speech still thinks the letter should not have been published.

Why is a sexual perversion so sacred? Presumably because most normal people have an instinctive revulsion against it and upsetting normal people is what it is all about.

Other sexual perversions -- such as pedophilia -- are not sacred even though both do harm. The way AIDS (which is overwhelmingly a disease of homosexuals) shortens the life of homosexuals is beyond question. I myself had two homosexual friends who succumbed to it at an early age.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

More of that very Satisfying Campus Outrage

A rather silly "South Park" style cartoon must not appear in a student newspaper:

"The student-run newspaper at Central Connecticut State University is under fire for publishing a cartoon this week that critics called racist and sexist. The three-frame comic, titled "Polydongs," features two characters who mention locking a "14-year-old Latino girl" in a closet and urinating on her. It was published in Wednesday's issue of The Recorder, a weekly newspaper distributed free on campus.

The paper's editors reviewed the cartoon before it was published and decided that it was no more offensive than some episodes of "South Park" or "Family Guy," two television shows known for off-color humor, Mr. Rowan said.

A disclaimer across the bottom of the strip said, "The Recorder does not support the kidnapping of (and subsequent urinating on) children of any age or ethnicity."

Student newspapers traditionally push the boundaries but saying anything bad about any Hispanic is one boundary that may not be pushed, apparently. If "Christian" had been used instead of "Latino", it would have been hilarious, of course.

As we see here, a small group of students are still protesting about it but the university president says that he can do nothing about the incident on free speech grounds.

* Boy, what is your name? - My name is Babu.* It is customary to mention Muhammed before the name.* What is your father's name?- Muhammed Abu* What's this in your lap?- Muhammed cat

We read:

"Bangladeshi authorities Tuesday arrested a cartoonist after drawings that Muslims said insulted their religion were published in a national newspaper, police and the government said. A Home Ministry statement said Arifur Rahman's sketches - titled "Name" - that came out Monday in a weekly supplement of the Prothom Alo - "hurt the religious sentiments of the people."

Police detectives picked up Rahman from his house in the capital, Dhaka, after the home ministry ordered his arrest, Janey Alam, a police officer at Tejgaon police station said. Rahman was yet to be formally charged, Alam said, adding that he was arrested under a stringent law that allows detention without any specific charges. Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation, has no specific blasphemy laws. But offenders can be prosecuted for hurting religious or public sentiments....

"A reenactment of a D-Day battle was cancelled amid claims that the group playing the role of German soldiers contained Nazi sympathisers.

Members of Vent d'Europe (Wind of Europe) were due to participate in a reenactment of the battle for the German heavy gun battery at Crisbecq overlooking Utah Beach in Normandy, where Allied troops landed to liberate France in June 1944.

But the event, part of a Heritage Days programme, was scrapped after the group was denounced by Admiral Christian Brac de la Perriere, chairman of Normandie Memoire, which seeks to preserve the memory of D-Day. "It is intolerable to use such a site to serve such a repugnant ideology," he said

Maybe German pacifists should have been used to represent the Wehrmacht. Since the Wehrmacht was, man for man, one of the most militarily effective forces in history, however, that would have made very strange propaganda.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Fox Attacked for not Allowing Bad Language

We read:

"At last weekend's Emmy Awards, Fox broke away from dramatic-actress winner Sally Field as she made an antiwar statement punctuated with "goddamn"-which started the blogosphere humming with outrage. For many in the liberal camp, the incident confirmed their suspicions about Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

"It's time for Fox to hear it for their blatant Bush cronyism," wrote a poster on Daily Kos, one of many similar comments, the LA Times reports.

"Some language during the live broadcast may have been considered inappropriate by some viewers," the network said in a statement. "As a result, Fox's broadcast standards executives determined it appropriate to drop sound (and picture) during those portions of the show."

A case of damned if you do and damned if you don't, I think. Since Fox is the only major channel that consistently gives both Leftist and conservative viewpoints an airing, nothing they do will ever be right for the Left. The Left NEED censorship of opposing views and Fox has upset that applecart.

"Two students in northern New Jersey can wear buttons featuring a picture of Hitler youth to protest a school uniform policy, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. sided with the parents of the students, who had been threatened with suspension last fall for wearing the buttons. However, the judge added in his ruling that the boys will not be allowed to distribute the buttons at school.

Citing a 1969 case in Iowa involving students who wore black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War, Greenaway wrote that "a student may not be punished for merely expressing views unless the school has reason to believe that the speech or expression will 'materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school.'"

The buttons bear the words "no school uniforms" with a slash through them superimposed on a photo of young boys wearing identical shirts and neckerchiefs. There are no swastikas visible on the buttons, but the parties agreed that they depict members of Hitler youth.

This is a straightforward application of precedent regarding the 1st Amendment. It has been held previously that "disruption" is the only thing that trumps a student's free speech rights. The surprise is, however, that the judge stuck to the law when anything "racist" was involved. Judges are perfectly capable of making up the law as they go along if it suits them.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Attack on Free Speech by Leftists at Middlebury College, Vermont

We read:

"Not two weeks into the new academic term, political "debate" on campus is manifesting itself in an all-too-common flurry of activity in the McCullough Student Center Mail Room. A poster displayed by the College Republicans on the club's bulletin board was defaced over the weekend, and a meager note from club leadership appeared next to the torn poster on Sunday.

"What does it say about Middlebury if anything representing a minority political viewpoint is torn down or damaged within 48 hours?" the single sheet of paper asks onlookers. The note continues, "If what we put up upsets you, we invite you to come discuss it with us instead of damaging or destroying it."

By Monday night, though, the note itself remained in lonely evidence on the bulletin board and the torn poster had disappeared. According to Heather Pangle '10, co-president of the College Republicans and author of the McCullough note, the club has not been able to keep anything on the board for more than two days at a time since last year.

I said previously (on 13th) that these guys were not the sharpest knives in the drawer. They finally seem to have realized it:

"An Australian software firm, which was suing a broadband community website over unflattering comments published on its message board, has said it would drop its case. 2Clix, which sells an accounting program, sued Whirlpool owner Simon Wright for "injurious falsehood", asking for $150,000 in damages and an injunction requiring Whirlpool to remove forum threads highly critical of 2Clix's software.

But while legal experts doubted the ability of 2Clix to win the case from the outset, it could have had major ramifications for website operators and their users. A win for 2Clix would have set a nasty precedent and seriously limited the ability of web users to criticise companies' products and services.

Ironically, the negative word of mouth and worldwide media coverage criticising 2Clix for trying to silence its critics seems to have damaged the firm's reputation far more than the forum threads that were the subject of the lawsuit.

"A prosecutor in Bolzano, northern Italy has seized wine bottle labels bearing a portrait of Hitler and other Nazis from a winery near the Austrian border.

The 20 labels from the "Der Fuehrer" line show Hitler raising the Nazi salute and his generals, including Hermann Goering, the Reich's economic minister, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Gestapo, and Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy. The black and white labels are imprinted with the mottoes "Ein volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer'' (one people, one empire, one Fuehrer) and "Sieg heil", a slogan proclaimed by Hitler as a greeting or in front of the masses.

The incriminating labels constitute a glorification of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, according to state prosecutor Cuno Tarfusser.

The Lunardelli company said it had sold around 20,000 bottles featuring the Hitler labels per year. It also sold wine with images of Mussolini on the label, which were not seized by police. The bottles make up part of a product line started in 1995 called the "historic collection", selling wine with labels with the faces of Winston Churchill, Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist philosopher, Adolph Hitler, Karl Marx, Napoleon Bonaparte, Benito Mussolini, and Che Guevara."

Che Guevara was a psychopathic killer and the hate-filled Karl Marx has probably been responsible for more killings than anyone else in history. So if Hitler cannot be featured, why are Guevara and Marx OK?

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Google Must be Doing Something Right

We read:

"Iran has blocked access to the Google search engine and its Gmail email service as part of a clampdown on material deemed to be offensive, the Mehr news agency reported this week. "I can confirm these sites have been filtered," said Hamid Shahriari, the secretary of Iran's National Council of Information

After all that Google has done for them! Ungrateful wretches! Google is already big on censoring anti-Islamic sites. Maybe it will now censor all criticism of Iran! Or maybe it will start a special Google Iran service the way it did for China.

It would of course be too much to expect Google simply not to be evil. That would be too big a change in their corporate culture. No doubt Google are chatting to the Ayatollahs already.

"A book that was so controversial the University of Michigan Press stopped selling it is now back on U-M's distribution list.

The Press' executive board decided unanimously last week that "it would be a blow against free speech" to remove "Overcoming Zionism" from its Web site, despite members' "deep reservations" over the content.

Critics characterize the book as anti-Semitic hate speech, and some have faulted U-M for facilitating its sales.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Must not Mention that Blacks Splurge on Cars, Clothes and Bling

We read the summary of some serious economics research:

"Using nationally representative data on consumption, we show that Blacks and Hispanics devote larger shares of their expenditure bundles to visible goods (clothing, jewelry, and cars) than do comparable Whites. We demonstrate that these differences exist among virtually all sub-populations, that they are relatively constant over time, and that they are economically large.

The report has however been called "old-fashioned racism". Yes. I guess facts can be racist these days. It may be worth noting that one of the authors of the research report is himself black. Just One Minute has an extended discussion of the matter.

"Ireland is a coarse place with a sad history where the natives are obsessed by money. That, at least, is the view of the German Ambassador to Dublin. Christian Pauls earned a rare official rebuke from the Irish Government after he aired his unflattering opinions before a group of 80 German industrialists, many of whom were potential investors in the Celtic Tiger economy.

Mr Pauls poured scorn on Ireland's recent affluence and its Government, telling his audience at Clontarf Castle in Dublin that "junior ministers earn more than the German Chancellor" and that "20 per cent of the population are public servants" - neither of which is true.

Mr Pauls ploughed on regardless, describing Irish history as "even sadder than Poland"

Nobody is beyond criticism and some of the things the ambassador said about Ireland have an element of truth but in view of Germany's own sensitivity about mentions of its past, this official German onslaught on Ireland can only be viewed as gross hypocrisy -- or double standards at least. The Irish in me says that the ambassador should be recalled.

The probable background to the incident is that high-tax Germany resents the striking economic success of low-tax Ireland.

"After a group of UC Davis women faculty began circulating a petition, UC regents rescinded an invitation to Larry Summers, the controversial former president of Harvard University, to speak at a board dinner Wednesday night in Sacramento. The dinner comes during the regents' meeting at UCD next week.

Summers gained notoriety for saying that innate differences between men and women could be a reason for under-representation of women in science, math and engineering.

UCD professor Maureen Stanton, one of the petition organizers, was delighted by news of the change this morning, saying it's "a move in the right direction." ... When Stanton heard about the initial invitation to Summers, she was "stunned." "I was appalled that someone articulating that point of view would be invited by the regents," she said....

Monday, September 17, 2007

"A German cardinal has sparked outrage by warning that modern culture is at risk of descending into "degeneracy", a term which is taboo due to its close connection to the Nazis.

It is the second time in a week that a prominent figure has drawn fire for alluding to subjects linked to the Nazi era, highlighting how sensitive Germans still are - more than 60 years after the collapse of Hitler's regime.

Joachim Meisner, archbishop of the western city of Cologne, made a broad attack on modern culture in a speech to inaugurate a local museum on Friday. "When culture is disconnected from divine reverence, the cult descends into ritualism and culture degenerates. It loses its centre," he said.

The term 'degeneracy' is barely uttered these days in Germany. Hitler's Nazis used the concept to describe art and culture which failed to conform to their tastes. "I am shocked that the term "degenerate" is still used, I thought that was history in Germany," former North Rhine-Westphalia minister Michael Vesper said.

"Art is free and should not be pocketed by anyone. Anyone, like Cardinal Meisner, who is prepared to reject art which does not fit into his own pigeonhole of thought ... is stoking a dangerous fire," he told Express newspaper.

So I guess you are not allowed to say that the culture has degenerated from what it was. I certainly think the educational system has degenerated and that is a large part of culture. So I guess that makes me a Nazi. But is it Nazi to want kids to be able to read and write when they leave school?

It's interesting that the Cardinal talked about culture and his critics seem to be talking about art. That probably arises because the term "Kunst und Kultur" (art and culture) is a very common one in German. Germans reflexly team the two concepts. That does however seem as narrow-minded as his Eminence is accused of being.

The German term translated as "degenerate" is entartet and is probably a bit stronger than "degenerate". It means something like "emptied of what it is supposed to be". I personally think that is a good description of the Episcopal Church, for instance. It is certainly a mockery of a Christian church. And a lot of Episcopalians think that too.

And the Cardinal's view of modern Germany may not be too far off the mark anyway. Note what an Australian travel writer recently wrote about Nuremburg:

"Strolling down the broad granite-paved Great Road, I was overtaken by a young inline skater wired for music. Had Adolf Hitler seen him cruise past mindless graffiti, discarded drink cans and a decrepit landscape, he would have gone ballistic."

Regardless of what Hitler might or might not have thought of it, it is not a pretty picture. If it is a generally true picture, Germany clearly has degenerated.

"The head of an al-Qaeda-led group in Iraq offered $US100,000 for the killing of the Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks over his drawing depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

"From now on we announce the call to shed the blood of the Lars who dared to insult our Prophet... and during this munificent month we announce an award worth $US100,000 to the person who kills this infidel criminal," said Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, in an audiotape posted on a website today.

"The award will be increased to $US150,000 ($178,605)if he were to be slaughtered like a lamb."

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Golliwogs Lose out this Time

Golliwogs have survived past challenges in both Britain and Australia but not this time. Report from Kenilworth in Warwickshire (central England):

"This week we feature a resident who found himself somewhat amazed when he came across a gift shop in the town selling Golliwogs. Offence was taken and he accused the shop of being racist for including the toys on the shelves. The man, who did not want to be named, said that Brambles was "risking its reputation" by stocking what he called "a profound symbol of racism and intolerance".

The Smalley Place shop was selling a five and a half inch high soft toy key ring for 2.99 pounds and a smaller plastic golliwog pen at 1.99 in the style of the rag-doll like character created by Florence Kate Upton in the late 19th century.

These products have now been withdrawn from sale after the owners were asked about the toys and informed of the resident's concerns. The shop owners were shocked that someone had taken offence.

"In contrast with the media blackout that pro-life Canadians are used to expecting at their demonstrations, media coverage of the Reproductive Choice Campaign trucks rolling on Calgary streets this week has been lively. The trucks feature three-metre high photos of aborted children and an email address for more information.

Local papers and radio stations were joined by CBC and Global News who took video footage, while CTV News Calgary has run a two-minute television news spot three times in the last two days and included the sponsoring group's website address. This coverage constitutes a frenzy compared to the nearly total media blackout that is traditional at pro-life events such as the annual March for Life event in Ottawa.

"The latest concern centers on a group with a crude title denouncing Islam [F**k Islam] that had more than 750 members at last count. While the group takes pains to say it has nothing against Muslims, who "can be and usually are peaceful and respectful," it asserts at the start: "The Quran contains many lies and threats. Islam is false, no god exists, and someone should say that loud and clear."

In the month or so since the group was created, the reaction has been building across Facebook. As of the weekend, more than 58,000 Facebook members had joined a group that said that unless the anti-Islam group was removed, "we're quitting Facebook."

Facebook declined to comment on Friday on the subject of hate speech or on what steps had been taken. What is clear is that for a day or so last week, the site was made inaccessible. The organizer of the anti-Islam site, a man who said in an e-mail message that his legal name is Variable, wrote, "Facebook briefly deleted my account, and I assumed they did so because of the group, but they reinstated the account and told me that it was a mistake of some sort."

He said he disagreed that his site was trafficking in hate speech. "The custom of protecting freedom of speech allows people to address belief systems in the harshest of terms," he wrote, adding that his group's sentiment is "a peaceful one; atheism is a belief system that few will die for, because there is no reward."

All he is done is succeed in the job he was given -- but the Left called him a liar before he had even spoken:

"This week, the left-wing group Moveon.org published a rather vile full-page advertisement in the New York Times that smeared the character of Gen. David Petraeus. There is a subgroup of American leftists who hate this nation and, of course, hate the military, and the Moveon.org ad reflected a combination of paranoia and venom. Moveon confirmed Thursday that it paid $65,000 for the ad, about a 67 percent discount from the standing NYT rate of approximately $181,000-plus for a full-page ad. However, a Times spokesman denied the discount was due to any political bias, but was due to other factors regulating the newspaper's ads.

The Republicans in Congress called upon the Democrats to renounce such hate speech. But Democrats in both the House and the Senate rejected calls to condemn the ad, saying Republicans are trying to take attention off what they call the president's failed Iraq policy. That, of course, makes no sense. Condemning the ad would take about ten minutes, hardly time enough to take senators' minds off the nation's Iraq policy.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, introduced an anti-ad measure. But Democratic leaders said they would not allow a vote on the nonbinding resolution.

"On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American flag. Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States. The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.

Gayle Langston said her daughter, Jessica, was told to remove her Stars and Stripes t-shirt. "Today she wanted to wear her shirt, and I had to tell her no", said Langston. "She didn't like it at all because I knew it would get her in trouble. Of all days, 9/11, she could not wear her American Flag shirt"

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn't want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

Under great pressure, the school has now lifted the ban but is being threatened by the ACLU if they do not allow Mexican and other flags as well. What the basis of the ACLU threat might be remains unclear. Is it "racist" to display the American flag in America?

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Australian case could smother web chat

Must not warn others of problem products and services:

"The founder of one of the nation's most popular online discussion forums says a lawsuit brought by a software company threatens freedom of speech on the net. Whirlpool forums founder Simon Wright, who is being sued by accounting software maker 2Clix Australia for publishing comments the company alleges are "false and malicious", says the legal action affects all online discussion and even film reviews.

"Whirlpool's forum operates on the basis that users post their comments without prior approval. "We treat all complaints about posts seriously."

2Clix Australia is suing Mr Wright for damages after two forum discussions about its products on the Whirlpool site. According to a statement on the site, purportedly from 2Clix, the action was based on comments criticising its software and postings encouraging other Whirlpool members to avoid purchasing their products.

"A New Zealand ad campaign showing Adolf Hitler clutching a piece of pizza in a Nazi salute has been withdrawn after complaints from the public.

The billboards advertising the Hell Pizza chain were part of a series showing famous people from history. The image along with a quote from the Nazi leader - "It is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell'' - was used on billboards in four of New Zealand's main cities.

"(We) thought that people would be able to see a funny side to a guy doing a 'sieg heil' salute with a piece of pizza in his hand," said Kirk MacGibbon of the Auckland-based Cinderella advertising agency. "If you laugh at something, you take its power away. But there are certain things we are still unable to laugh about,'' said Mr MacGibbon said.

The signs would be taken down. "We have had a handful of complaints from people of Jewish origin who were offended by the use of Hitler," he said.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

No Balance Allowed in Discussing the Hitler Years

We read:

"She was Germany's favourite newsreader - a blonde, blue-eyed television star who became a campaigner for old-fashioned feminity.

Now Eva Herman has fallen from her pedestal - she has been sacked for praising Hitler's policies towards women, families and motherhood. The Nazi years, she said, while presenting her latest book, The Noah's Ark Principle, were a cruel time. They had, though, a redeeming quality: they celebrated family values. "There were the good things too, that is to say the values, the children, the mothers, the families, the solidarity . . ."

Nazi policies did indeed honour motherhood but we must not say that apparently. Everything must be black and white to the "anti-racist" fanatics -- shades of grey not allowed. And Hitler is definitely all-black. Prewar anti-Nazi writers (such as Heiden and Roberts) agree that Hitler was very popular in Germany -- so he must have got some things right.

I drove a VW beetle for many years and thought it was an excellent car -- but it was originally a product of Hitler's regime. Volkswagen means "The people's car". So I guess that makes me a racist too.

"I spent 26 years in the USN CT ops, graduated the Naval War College, trained with the IDF, and spent more time tracking down and neutralizing terrorists than you have probably spent breathing. I have a solid comprehension of the cultures of the Middle East (along with many other cultures), I read and speak English, Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Latin and Greek. I have a Bachelor's in Nuclear Physics, a Masters in Modern Warfare, Masters in Theology, a Doctorate of Divinity, Doctorate of Biblical Studies, and Ph.D. in Trauma Psychology.

Some people don't need others to send them up. The "Rev." (mailorder Rev.) Sutter is remembered for his claims that Jihad Watch is a "hate speech" site. See a post here of July 10th.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Will the ACLU Sue this Guy for Violating the Separation of Church and State?

We read:

"Yesterday we got word from the inside of a rather bizarre "moment of silence" at the McNair High School in suburban Atlanta. During yesterday's morning of silence we're told that Principal James Jones asked the students and staff to pray for Michael Vick and to pray that the judge treats him with leniency.

There is no word on whether or not Principal Jones asked the students to pray for the dogs that were savaged, brutalized and killed at the hands of Michael Vick.

We tried to get Principal Jones on the air yesterday. The first time we called he was running a drill. The second time he was "roaming the hallways." The third time he was in the cafeteria. After that they just refused to take our calls.

The "La Raza" organization of Hispanics could hardly be more racist. "La Raza" means "The Race" -- the Mexican race. But are they ever criticized for that? Not that I have heard. In fact, we read below in the Left-leaning Associated Press that "La Raza" is "a mainstream advocacy group".

"Charlie Norwood, a congressman from Georgia who died earlier this year, appeared to accept the conspiracy at face value, accusing the National Council of La Raza, a mainstream Washington advocacy group, of acting as a front organization for the "radical racist group" MEChA, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan.

The image above is from a recent rally against the Minutemen. Story here. The "protester" is calling for the Minutemen to be "stomped". Mainstream whites, however, can be harried for just using certain words (such a the "N-word") without calling for ANY action against the minority concerned, let alone "stomping" them.

Where is the outrage? Where is the prosecution for the above "hate speech"?

Monday, September 10, 2007

Swingeing Speech Restrictions at Ohio State U

We read:

"The Office of University Housing at Ohio State, a public university, maintains a Diversity Statement that severely restricts what students in Ohio State's residence halls can and cannot say. Students are instructed: "Do not joke about differences related to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, ability, socioeconomic background, etc."

Of the many hundreds of policies FIRE has catalogued over the years, this is the first that flatly instructs students, "do not joke" about controversial topics. As anyone who has ever lived in a dormitory can likely attest, dorms are where some of the freest and most frank discussions among college students take place. And some of those discussions will almost certainly include-gasp!-jokes about controversial topics such as race, ethnicity, and yes, possibly even ability....

Not only is that an unfortunate choice, it is also one that, at a public university like Ohio State, violates students' constitutional right to free speech. There is no exception to the First Amendment for ethnic jokes or dumb blonde jokes.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

The Latest Wicked Toon

We read:

"The dreaded cartoon of blasphemy of the week appeared in Tuesday's edition of the Columbus Dhimmi Dispatch, and pictures terror cockroaches scurrying across a map of the Middle East out of an Iranian sewer

Iran is busily trying to spread its influence throughout the Middle East -- by supplying arms and training to terrorists in Iraq and Lebanon, for instance. It is also threatening to annex Bahrain and has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. So the cartoon is based on reality.

"Confucius, Hammurabi and more than a dozen other historical figures have joined Jesus Christ on the wall at Slidell City Court in a move that officials believe will reassure visitors that it has always been the court's intent to showcase the people who helped to create the laws of civilized nations.

Officials mounted the additional portraits Friday, one week before a scheduled court hearing at which the Louisiana ACLU will ask a federal judge to remove the Jesus portrait.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Must not Mention Black-white Housing Realities

An influential politician, David Barbee, in Augusta, Georgia is one of those who are pressing for a redevelopment and upgrading of downtown Augusta. There is some opposition to the idea however and he is foolish enough to mention in an email that the reason for the opposition is that converting the area into an expensive one will cause blacks to move out.

For that frankness, he is of course a "racist". You can read the full email here. You can see that he expressed no animosity towards blacks. He just described the political situation as he saw it. The fact that he is a Republican is almost certainly a large part of his sin.

"Eddie Griffin experienced a real "n-word" wake-up call when his raunchy comedy act came to a screeching halt last weekend in Miami. The 'Undercover Brother' star was booked as the main headliner for Friday night's line-up at the Black Enterprise/Pepsi 14th Annual Golf & Tennis Challenge.

The pint-sized, loud-mouthed funnyman's profanity, racial-slur-laced tirade didn't go over too well with the family friendly sold out audience. Griffin turned out to be the ultimately show-stopper, literally, when his microphone suddenly "failed" after repeatedly using the 'N-Word.'

Soon after his abrupt silencing, Black Enterprise magazine owner and publisher Earl Graves, came on stage with the plug in his hand and said: "We at Black Enterprise will not allow our culture to go backwards. Black Enterprise stands for decency, black culture and dignity and we will pay Mr. Griffin all that we owe him but we will not allow him to finish the show if that's the way he's going to talk."

Friday, September 07, 2007

Lewis drops the wickedest F-word in Telethon

We read:

"Jerry Lewis dropped an anti-gay slur -- the same one that got Isaiah Washington of Grey's Anatomy in trouble -- during the 18th hour of his annual Labor Day Telethon. The 81-year-old showman, prowling about the stage during the live telecast Monday in Las Vegas, was goofing around and dodging his cameraman, then went into a ramble about imaginary family members. 'Oh, your family has come to see you,' he said, speaking to the camera and gesturing toward thin air. 'You remember Bart, your older son,' he said, and motioning toward another unseen character, 'Jesse, the illiterate fagg ... No,' Lewis said, quickly stopping himself before continuing."

Neil Giuliano, GLAAD president, called Lewis' use of the term "simply unacceptable." "It also feeds a climate of hatred and intolerance that contributes to putting our community in harm's way," Giuliano said.

In a statement Tuesday, Lewis said he was making "a joking comment to a member of my production team."

He was obviously too tired to censor his old brain from using a word that was in his younger days perfectly OK to use. Seeing he is very old he may perhaps be forgiven without having to go into rehab.

Why anybody thinks that banning contemptuous words about homosexuals stops people from having contemptuous thoughts about homosexuals I will never know. Making them an especially protected class is more likely to GENERATE contempt for them as far as I can see.

The rather obvious point of the toon seems to be that in a country that has been racked by famine (which Ethiopia has), a food fight consists not of throwing food at one another but rather of a fight to get to whatever food is available -- which is undoubtedly perfectly true. But some truths may not be mentioned, apparently.

If the cartoonist had portrayed Ethiopians as fat and happy and relaxing peacefully in the sun, he would no doubt have been praised warmly. Leftists prefer fantasy to reality any day. If you don't know anything about the various recent horrors in Ethiopia, a good place to start reading is here. It is because of those horrors that there are Ethiopian refugees throughout the Western world these days.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Swedish Muslim group to sue newspaper over Muhammad drawing

And Google is helping

"A Swedish Muslim group on Tuesday said it plans to sue a local newspaper for publishing a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. The Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in Orebro printed the cartoon made by artist Lars Vilks in an August 19 editorial that criticized Swedish art galleries for not displaying Vilks' art.

Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the Swedish Muslim Federation, said the group would sue the newspaper for inciting hatred against ethnic groups. "It ridicules our religion. This is discriminating and insulting...

Vilks did quite a few of his Mohammed cartoons but NOT ONE is available via Google image search. Live.com did however have one of them. So Google are once again censoring anything anti-Muslim. It's such childish "art", however, that I wonder why anybody bothers about it.

"Whoopi Goldberg decided to defend Michael Vick for his dogfighting. And what logic did she use to defend him? "There are certain things that are indicative to certain parts of our country [the South]...this is part of his cultural upbringing."

The KKK is not such a distant memory. A "Kleagle" still sits in the U.S. Senate in fact. So I guess that a lot of Southerners could reasonably denigrate (pun) blacks and justify their deeds as "part of their cultural upbringing".

And from the Global Warming and Iraq debates we know what important intellectuals Hollywood actors are.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Muslim Uses the Race Card to Attack Local People in Scotland

A Muslim group wants to build a huge cemetery on part of the land that forms a "Green Belt" around the Scottish village of Carmunnock. "Green Belts" (areas not allowed to be built on) go back a long way and are very popular in Britain.

At a meeting of 300 locals called to discuss the proposed cemetery, there was one person in the audience who heckled the Muslim representative. The heckler was promptly removed for his pains but the Muslim spokesman later said that the whole meeting had been very "racist".

That just offended the local people however, so it seems like it will be bye, bye to the cemetery if the local people have their way. Nobody has ever accused Muslims of being smart.

"A hotel in southern Germany which allowed guests to see a swastika-covered bunker from World War II in its cellar could lose its restaurant and alcohol licence and face criminal charges, a state finance ministry said.

The bunker, which was once the headquarters of Adolf Hitler's personal security staff, has been open to visitors via an advertised passageway at the hotel, located in the state of Bavaria near the Austrian border.

Critics say the bunker, located in Hitler's favourite holiday spot, Obersalzberg, has become a shrine to neo-Nazis who come to see Nazi propaganda and anti-Semitic statements scrawled and carved on its walls.

Obviously, people must not see actual remnants of Nazism. Only official "information" may be conveyed. Otherwise people might make the dangerous discovery that Nazism was actually SOCIALIST, not Rightist.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The only strange thing about the cartoon is that it closely mirrors reality. Muslim beach gear for women really is like that. See here. So again it is reality that is being censored. We must not tell anyone what Muslims are really like.

The Cox & Forkum cartoon below is a comment on the fact that the home paper of the Opus cartoon would not run it.

Switzerland is traditionally a very law-abiding society but, like most prosperous countries, they now have a large population of immigrant origin that is less law-abiding. As a result, many Swiss would like to boot out immigrants who commit crimes. But whatever you say or do to promote that view will of course be criticized as racist. We therefore read:

"The campaign poster was blatant in its xenophobic symbolism: Three white sheep kicking out a black sheep over a caption that read “for more security.” The message was not from a fringe force in Switzerland’s political scene but from its largest party.

Because black coloration in sheep is rare, black sheep have long been used as a symbol of those who don't fit in -- but don't expect the Left to acknowledge that! "Black" must only be referred to reverentially: Anything else is "xenophobic". Leftists are in fact comparing the proposed laws to Nazi laws.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Must not Mention that Blacks do Poorly at School

The following grovelling apology appeared on tricities.com -- a TN/VA news site:

"Sometimes, under the crush of deadline, we publish a story that could have been worded better. If the topic is particularly complex, like the federal No Child Left Behind education-accountability law, our task becomes even more difficult.

We simply blew it on one such story Aug. 24, and three readers called us on it.

We reported that seven Southwest Virginia schools failed to make "adequate yearly progress" under the No Child Left Behind Act. The following sentence is what drew the readers' ire, and rightly so: "Virginia Middle School didn't make AYP (adequate yearly progress) because its black students underperformed in their English classes. In addition, the middle school's students with disabilities underperformed in math."

Everybody knows about widespread black educational failure but nobody is supposed to mention it. Are we really sure that that helps anyone? It sound like the view of sex in Victorian England -- an era with an immense prostitution industry. Covering things up can just lead to worse abuses.

That the original story was written by a black writer is the amusing part, however. It was presumably the blackness of the writer that got it into print in the first place.

A Houston police officer has produced great outrage for distributing a booklet (a "Ghetto handbook") that offers interpretations of black speech:

"The booklet billed itself as a guide to Ebonics, teaching the reader to speak "as if you just came out of the hood." It included definitions such as "foty: a 40-ounce bottle of beer"; "aks: to ask a question"; and "hoodrat: scummy girl."

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Swedish Artist's Mohammed Sketch Prompts Another Muslim Uproar

Swedes getting bolder?

"Marking the beginning of yet another dispute over free speech and religious sensitivity, the government of Pakistan has joined Iran in protesting the publication in a Swedish newspaper of a sketch featuring the head of Mohammed on the body of a dog. "Pakistan condemns, in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet in the Swedish newspaper," the foreign ministry in Islamabad said in a statement Thursday.

The government in Stockholm has distanced itself from the decision by a regional newspaper, Nerikes Allehanda, to publish the picture on August 18. The sketch, by artist Lars Vilks, was used to illustrate an editorial on freedom of expression. The paper noted that three Swedish art exhibitions had turned down three Vilks sketches depicting a bearded, turbaned man as a dog, apparently because of security concerns....

Earlier this week the Iranian government also summoned a Swedish diplomat for a dressing-down, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a press conference during which he raged about Jews, accused "Zionists" of being responsible for the sketch.

The Swedish newspaper publishers' association has come out in support of Nerikes Allehanda's decision to publish the Mohammed sketch. "The strength of freedom of expression lies in the fact that it tolerates -- and protects -- not only comfortable, harmless and uncontroversial opinions, but also those that are tasteless, controversial, upsetting and offensive," the group's deputy chairman said in a statement.

An Australian cable channel has just apologized for broadcasting a program on Hitler's performance as a military leader in WWII. The fact that the program was about the war meant that there was little mention of the holocaust. Since the holocaust must be just about the most publicized event of the 20th century, failing to mention it is hardly a coverup and surely we are entitled to be interested in other aspects of Hitler's policies as well.

The big problem appears to be that the doco was made by David Irving, who has denied the scale and importance of the holocaust. Irving is however probably the most knowledgeable person alive about the Hitler period (he was the only one to question immediately the fake Hitler Diaries) so his perspective on the non-Holocaust activities of Hitler was worth having and nobody seems in fact to have questioned the accuracy of what he said in that connection.

I am no fan of holocaust denial but is holocaust affirmation now compulsory? Details here.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

"The editor of an Arabic daily newspaper published in London said in an interview on Lebanese television that he would dance in Trafalgar Square if Iranian missiles hit Israel.

Talking about Iran's nuclear capability on ANB Lebanese television on June 27, Abd Al-Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, said, "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel, by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight."

Bari Atwan founded the pan-Arab daily in London in 1989, and today the paper has a circulation of around 50,000. He is also a regular commentator on Sky News and BBC News 24.

A BBC spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that editors make decisions based on the following BBC guidelines.

"We should not automatically assume that academics and journalists from other organizations are impartial and make it clear to our audience when contributors are associated with a particular viewpoint."

"The BBC is required to explore a range of views, so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly unreflected or underrepresented."

"The BBC will sometimes need to report on or interview people whose views may cause serious offense to many in our audiences. We must be convinced, after appropriate referral, that a clear public interest outweighs the possible offense."

The BBC and the rest of the Left are ALWAYS ready to excuse Muslim hate speech on free speech grounds. Just say something adverse about homosexuals (for instance) though and see what happens.

Note this, "The BBC is required to explore a range of views, so that no significant strand of thought is knowingly unreflected or underrepresented" and ask when the BBC has aired a program condemning homosexuality as psychopathological? Yet only a few decades ago homosexuality was listed as a pathology in psychiatry handbooks such as DSM II.

University officials also overturned the committee's ruling that forced The Primary Source magazine to use bylines on all published articles and editorials, which magazine editors and free speech advocates said was akin to censorship.

"Universities are places where people should have the right to freely express opinions, no matter how offensive, stupid, wrong-headed, ill-considered or unpopular," Tufts president Lawrence Bacow said yesterday in a message e-mailed university-wide. "To say that people have the right to express such views does not mean that we condone them or that they should go unchallenged.""

But Kingman and Matthew Schuster, the current editor of the Primary Source, said Tufts remains guilty of silencing free speech by refusing to change the harassment decision. "Tufts overturned the censorship, which is an important step, but the dangerous precedent of labeling pieces of political speech harassment is still there," Schuster said.

Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia free speech advocacy group, said the university did not go far enough. "They still found a newspaper guilty of harassment for publishing something that was verifiably true," he said, referring to the editorial about Muslim countries. "That's extremely worrisome."

Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Mohammad

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."

Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"

One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson

"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn

Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.

The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.

The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it

A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.

Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.

Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human

Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?

If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862

Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?

The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand

Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."

"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica

Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here